Origin
Ben Parker was a young sales talker at a Coney Island fair at New York and also had been trained in the army. Despite being raised in difficult conditions, he was as confident as he was wise. hard-working and decent.
Creation
Uncle Ben was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962).
Major Story Arcs
Loving May
Ben Parker fell in love with a beautiful blond young woman named May Reilly. But May was in love with a big time gambler named Johnny Jerome, who she was planning to run away with. However, Ben’s confidence and determination prevented him from giving up on May and was able to find clues showing Johnny’s true colours as a criminal.
Ben and May fell deeply in love but their relationship was complicated a bit by Ben’s younger brother Richard, whom he was tasked by his parents to look after. This made them somewhat reluctant parents making them not wanting to have children of their own. After the two became Mr. and Mrs. Parker, Ben was employed in the textile industry while his brother, Richard Parker, became a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and fell in love with a woman named Mary Fitzpatrick, a fellow agent. The two had a son named Peter, and while the couple were on missions, the boy was put under the care of Ben and May.
Raising Peter
However, during a mission against the Red Skull, Richard and Mary died in a plane accident, making Ben and May Peter’s parents. Peter grew up to be very bright but was also shy and sensitive. He also had few friends at school and was often targeted by bullies like Flash Thompson. Even though Ben was too old to participate in any physical exercise with Peter and was slightly over-protective of him, they were very close and Ben acted as the young boy’s role model and confident. He also gave him his old Golden-Age comic books, having Peter admire Captain America.
One day, Peter’s classmate Charlie Weiderman, a student even more bullied than Peter, was chased by bullies to the Parkers’ house, thinking Charlie slashed their tires. They were confronted by Ben, who told them if they want to enter the house, they have to go through him. The bullies attacked Ben, but the old man used his military training to beat them and drive them away. However, after Charlie lied to Ben about slashing the tires, Ben forbid Peter to hang out with him and told Charlie to leave the house and never return.
Ben’s Legacy
During a school field trip, Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider granting him his powers. He used these powers for his own needs and worked in a TV station and provided money for his family. He vowed only to look after himself and his family. However, on one fateful night, a burglar just robbed the station and went by Peter, who was too selfish to stop him. During that same night, Ben and May had a huge fight and Ben went for a long walk to console himself. When he arrived home, he was confronted and shot by a burglar wanting to rob them. When Peter returned home, he found his uncle dead and vowed to exact revenge on the killer as Spider-Man. When he confronted the killer, he turned out to be the same burglar Peter allowed to escape at the TV station, Dennis Carradine. Overcome with grief and guilt, blaming himself for his uncle’s death, Peter realised that “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility”, and vowed to use his powers to help people and fight crime, thus becoming the hero he is today.
During his career as Spider-Man, Peter would sometimes consider retiring from super-heroics because of the burden he carries, but the image of his Uncle would give him the strength needed to continue on.
Though he remained dead, Ben would make several flashbacks. On Peter’s birthday, Doctor Strange recovered his Uncle Ben for five minutes as a present. Peter begged Ben to forgive him for the mistake he had done but Ben told him there was nothing to apologise for, and expressed how he was proud of the man he has become and urged him to continue on the path that makes him happy.
Aunt May had always blamed herself for Ben’s death, thinking that if they didn’t fight on that night, Ben wouldn’t have went for a walk and would have stayed home safe. However, this burden became lighter when Peter told her everything about himself and his Uncle Ben.
Spider-Man’s “brother” named himself Ben Reilly in respect to Uncle Ben’s name and Aunt May’s maiden name. In the MC2-verse, Spider-Girl’s “Uncle Ben” is Ben Reilly.
Other Versions
Earth 1610 (Ultimate)
Ben is almost the same as he is in the 616 Earth. He is wise, decent and Peter’s Uncle and confident. When Peter got in a fight with Flash at school, Flash’s parents sued the Parkers. Peter used his powers to get money by participating in Wrestling Matches. One day, after Peter had a fight with his Aunt and Uncle, he went to his friend’s house where he was having a party. Ben confronted him there and lectured him about power and responsibility but Peter wouldn’t listen. One night, a burglar came to the Parker house when Ben and May were there. He held a gun and told them to give him their money. Ben smilingly tried to calm him down but this angered the burglar and shot him in front of May. Ben would later appear in flashbacks and dreams.
Other Media
Spider-Man (2002)
In the blockbuster 2002 movie Spider-Man, Uncle Ben was played by Cliff Robertson. He is the same as he is in the comics. He is Peter’s uncle and has just recently left his job. After Peter was bitten by the Spider, he started acting suspicious, worrying his Aunt and Uncle. One day when Peter told them he was going to the library (when he was actually going to a Wrestling Arena), Ben offered to drive him there. Before dropping Peter off, Ben talked about Peter’s fight with Flash at school and told him that “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility”. But Peter told him off, telling him to stop acting like he’s his father, storming off. Later that night, Peter returned only to find out that his uncle was shot by a car jacker. As Ben lays dying on the ground, he mutters Peter’s name with Peter holding his hand right before he died. At the end of the movie, Peter visits his uncle’s grave and reminds himself of the wise words his uncle told him.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
In the second 2004 blockbuster movie Spider-Man 2, Ben made a short cameo appearance when Peter was losing his powers during a dream/hallucination when he was considering being Spider-Man no more. They were sitting next to each other in a car, where Ben told him that what he’s thinking is making him sad. He reminds him of all the talks they had about honesty, fairness and justice and tells him that he counts on him to have the courage to take those dreams out into the world. He tells him that he has a gift and reminds him with the Power and Responsibility lesson and tells him to shake his hand and promise that he’ll continue but Peter rejects him and tells him that he wants a life of his own. During the movie, Peter and his Aunt visit Ben’s grave with May blaming herself for what happened. Peter tells her the truth about that night, how he was responsible for the tragedy.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
In the third movie, Spider-Man 3 in 2007, Ben appeared in a flashback. It is revealed that the man who really killed Ben is Flint Marko, who asked Ben to give him his car and Ben told him to “put the gun and down and go home” but was startled by his partner’s appearance and accidentally shot him. Spider-Man attempts to exact revenge on Marko (who becomes Sandman) but at the end of the movie he forgives him.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
In the 2012 movie The Amazing Spider-Man, Ben Parker was played by Martin Sheen. He and his wife May (played by Sally Field) raised Peter after his parents died in a mysterious airplane crash. When Peter first gains his powers he spends an excessive amount of time out practicing with them, worrying Ben and May as they have no idea where he goes or what he does that keeps him out of the house for so long. When Peter gets into trouble for using his powers to humiliate Flash Thompson, their worries increase. One night, they get into a major fight over Peter’s strange new routine and when Ben tells Peter that his father Richard lived by the philosophy that if you had the ability to do good, you had a moral obligation to do so (more or less a variation of the classic “With great power comes great responsibility” line) Peter storms out of the house angrily.
Ben follows Peter, who enters a convenience store where the cashier refuses to let him buy a drink since his lack of adequate change is not covered by store policy. A crook enters and steals a six-pack of beer just as Peter leaves the store. As the crook runs away, the cashier yells at Peter to stop him, to which Peter replies “Not my policy”. The cashier yells at passers-by on the other side of the street to stop the thief. One of them is Uncle Ben, who is shot fatally after a brief scuffle with the crook. A distraught Peter runs up to Ben’s body and yells for an ambulance; however it is too late for Ben. Later at home, Peter finds a voicemail from Ben on his phone’s inbox; a message left by Ben telling Peter that he and May know that Peter will always be a good person no matter what. After this, Peter takes up the Spider-Man identity to help innocents in New York, remembering Ben’s words about his father’s philosophy.
Spider-Man (1990 Animated Series)
In the 1990’s Spider-Man animated series Ben appeared in the final episode of the series where the real Spider-Man snatched him from another dimension in order to remind Spider-Carnage that “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility”, this has Spider-Carnage feel regret for what he has done and commits suicide.
He then hugs the real Spider-Man and bids him farewell after telling him that he’s proud of him.